Macao

Post-rock Band WhyOceans Releases Debut Album

WhyOceans
was formed in 2005, 'At Land' will be their debut album ever
published. From the album title, which is borrowed from the godmother
of American experimental film--Maya Deren, to the mix style of
post-rock, brit-rock and psychedelic, WhyOceans' music presents a
strong cinematic quality. The band was invited to perform at music
festivals in Macao, Hong Kong and Mainland China. Their
live performance is energetic in the way that they often combine live
music with video art and silent films.

WhyOcean's debut
record 'At Land' is produced and published by Hong
Kong indie record label Chopxticks Entertainments, which
has presented the audience with gigs from today's famous bands, such
as Mono, World's End Girlfriend from Japan and Ef from
Sweden. Among the few indie record labels in Hong Kong,
Chopxticks focuses on promoting post-rock music. Hong Kong post-rock
band Fragile's debut album, which was acclaimed by famous music
critic Yuen Chi- chung was also published by Chopxticks not
long ago.

RE4CT DESIGNER - Adam Sweet

There is a lot to know about me, but one thing’s for sure; my soul finds its passion in creativity and innovation.

I was raised in the foothills of Northern California. Not quite “Snow Falling on Cedars,” but a far cry from “Beverly Hills Cop.” My parents run a stained, etched, and carved glass studio called Visions In Glass (VisionsInGlass.com) where they do custom glasswork for homes and businesses. My mother is a prodigal artist whose work at age 14 was on par with Mozart’s musicality at age 7. My father’s mathematical mind gave me an engineer’s edge. Art and design were always a part of my life. I studied Industrial Design with a minor in Marketing at California State University Long Beach. It was the best decision I had ever made in my life. Industrial Designers are people understanding the world in a totally different way. Our insanity breeds the latest inventions. They helped shape the person I am today. Since graduating college, I have had the pleasure of working in a number of disciplines of design, and art, from the corporate giants to the small boutiques. Joy is in creation-in any media.

Human Being Inspired began as a statement. A slogan for what we as humanity are doing. We live our day to day lives with endless things changing around us. We sit back and wonder, ‘Wow, how did that happen so fast?” Well, I am human being inspired. The things we use are human being inspired. And in turn, we become inspired human beings. Our culture is growing on an exponential level due to this. We love to learn, and share, and grow. There is an undeniable flow pacing throughout our universe, I like to see my creations as part of it.

Human Being Inspired products are generally custom, hand-drawn, pieces of wearable art. They traditionally include sweatshirts, hats, handbags, footwear, and t-shirts. However, HBI has now grown to include body art, two-dimensional art, 3D sculpture, and tattoo design. The graphic nature is a stream of consciousness melded with imagery, musical preference, and anything else the customer desires in their custom art.

In 2009, Human Being Inspired was approached by RE4CT representative to participate in designing a line of graphic tees for their upcoming work featuring independent American designers. Since their meeting, HBI has created a number of designs including hand sketches, graphic imagery, and traditional abstract art in their trademark style of black and white linework. HBI looks forward to a bright future of unique, collaborative artwork and design with the help of RE4CT to expand them into a brand known world wide.

Music For The Week - WhyOceans

Tell us a about WhyOceans and the people involved ?

WhyOceans has been 5 people for about 5 years, and is now 6 from the beginning of this year. Jase, Jackal, Tommy and Kev have always formed the core of the band, then Ellison joined about 2 years ago, and finally Guill dropped by. We’re a good mix of what can be found in Macao and around: Kev is from Portugal, Jackal, Jase, Tommy and Ellison are Chinese from Macao and Guill is French. It might sound a bit special, but it’s actually how it is in daily life here!

Where is your band located ?

We’re all living in Macao and rehearse in Macao as well.

What genre of music do you consider your work to be ? Who are your major influences ?

We used to play kind of pop/rock songs, close to Coldplay and Oasis for example but we finally found our style since last year. We’re playing what you could call psychedelic post-rock, going from the Pink Floyd, the Doors toSigur Rós, Mono, Explosions in the Sky…

When did you form your band ? How long have you all known each other ? How did you meet ?

Tommy, Jackal and Jase used to stay together since high school. Some years later they knew Kev from friends, with the band’s previous drummer they formed the 1stgeneration of WhyOceans. After the divergence of the previous drummer, we met Ellison by chance.

Guill used to follow the underground music scene in Macao, we’ve met him at many of our concerts. We’ve heard about his compositions on his myspace and were interested to work together.

What inspired you to make music together ?

It’s all about passion and fate. Although each of us may have different music tastes but we always have the same goal and direction on the music we make. Combing different styles and cultures to form our unique sound, this is really interesting and we all love what we are doing.

Where have you performed ? What are your favorite and least favorite venues ?

We’re having shows in Asia, mainly Macao, Hong Kong and Mainland China. We just came back from a festival in Guangzhou a few weeks ago and finished a show in Macao with bands from Japan and Hong Kong.

Being a musician in Asia, what is the advantage and disadvantage ?

At least speaking about Macao, yeah, both advantage and disadvantage. It’s actually pretty easy to organize shows or to play for underground venues. But it’s much harder to play in official festivals if your music is a bit out of the beaten track. Post-rock is not common around, and pop & metal are much more appreciated by organizers. Then music and even art in general is not that spread, and doesn’t interest as much people as it is in Europe for example so you have to expect sometimes that not a lot of people show up at the venues or don’t care a lot.

Can you tell us more about your upcoming event ?

We’re expecting to release our debut album very soon and planning a tour in Mainland China, Hong Kong and may be Taiwan also.

How can fans-to-be gain access to your music and latest news ? Do you have a website with sample songs ?

We would like to introduce the band’s official website and other social platforms.

WhyOceans is the special guest for Live in Macau @ LMA {XL}

All live music fans you should check this out. Live in Macau @ LMA will be held at LMA {XL} this Friday (29th). Our boys WhyOceans will be one of the special guest in the show together with Buddhistson (Japan), The Lovesong (HK), plus : "Let's be groovy again" psyschedelic Art Exhibition by Groovy Group. Don't miss it.

RE4CT LA

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